Robert James Clarke has been an prolific supporter of Art on a Postcard since it's inception in 2014. His excellent dogs have graced all of our lotteries and auctions over the past two years and Robert has been incredibly generous in donating original images to the charity.

Benjamin Murphy caught up with Robert recently to celebrate his print from our 20 Best of Art on a Postcard portfolio curated by Jealous Gallery coming to the AoaPC shop.

BM - For those that might not know, please explain who you are and what you do.

RC- My name is Robert James Clarke and I’m an artist at 53, living in NYC, originally from Luton. I paint predominately dogs.

BM - Have you always been so creative?

RC -Yes …always since an early age I would copy bugs bunny from the TV, won many art prizes at school. Art in the 70’s at schools was an easy lesson where everyone messed about but I loved it. A good teacher helped.

BM – What is it about dogs that attracts you to drawing them?

RC - I started by chance with dogs but they seem to have a way of lending themselves to a fluid line an abstraction and vigour which is a challenge to catch. They are a hairy, living mass of mark and all very different in mood and feel.

BM – Do all dogs have distinct unique characters, and do you believe that they are visible in your portraits?

RC - Yes they do, you can put 30 West Highland terriers in a room and to most people the look like a mass of white dogs, to their owners, they know them straight away. I paint that distinction. It is sometimes a tiny spark a glint in the eye or the flap of an ear.

BM - What made you want to get involved with Art on a Postcard?

RC- I try to do as much charity work as possible especially as the dogs are well loved and usually sell well, so it made sense to do art on a postcard. I think my friend Sharon Elphick put me in touch with Gemma Peppé a long time back.

BM - What other exciting things are you working on at the moment?

RC – I’m about to play golf for a few weeks down in Maryland, that excites me, but when I get back I’m starting some human portraits. A new venture into the land of people …

Further reading...

Ramiro’s artistic practice is particularly influenced by poets and writers and it is precisely this illustrative aspect that allows us to enter with childish naivety into the romantic realm of his work.

Lizzie Riches is inspired by the relationship between civilisation and nature. In her own words, ‘I walk around cities, I look at people, I read books, I look at other people’s paintings, and I make a kind of soup of all this information and something comes out of it’.

Cathie’s poignant sculptures create a sense of uncanny familiarity within the viewer and ascribe new value and meaning to old forgotten objects. Texture, form and movement work together to provide an animated aspect to the dolls, their fleshy and carnal qualities almost bringing them to life.

Bill explores the capacity light has in bringing subjects in or out of focus, twisting forms and skewing vision. In this way he finds a balance in making the spectator aware both of what is being represented and of the process of representation.

"I grew up in a city so I wasn't really around animals, yet it still felt nostalgic making the work. Perhaps because it’s easier to blur the lines between animals, people and things in a childhood, imaginary world."

Her work is often centred around urban crowds where the figures overlap, and the depth of field is worked in such a way that our perception is skewed. In this way her paintings are sensually manipulative because they seem at certain times flat but at others as though they contain such extraordinary depth.

"Much like the art of the Mughal Empire, Rupert Newman’s work is a satisfying plethora of colours delicately laced together to create an orderly, calm-inducing composition, providing us with a fixed point for meditative contemplation."